One Year, 11 Months, and 9 Days
by Kayar
Summary: How could one simple thing be both a dream come true and a worst nightmare?"


Title:  One Year, 11 Months, and 9 Days

Author:**  Kayar**

Disclaimer:  Alias and its characters are not mine.  It belongs to ABC, Bad Robot Productions, and a genius by the name of J.J. Abrams.  The song is "Somewhere Out There" by Our Lady Peace.  That doesn't belong to me either.

***

Michael Vaughn drove down rush-hour Interstate 15.  San Diego traffic wasn't as bad as Los Angeles, but it still took some time to get back to his house.  He glanced at the clock.  Late again.  He would have to call Nicole and tell her not to wait on him for dinner.  He would have to remind her to feed Donovan too.  Somehow she always forgot, although it was beyond him as to how someone could ignore a 50-pound dog underfoot.

            _Sydney probably wouldn't have forgotten about Donovan_, he mused, then instantly berated himself.  _It's been almost two years; I should stop thinking about her every other second. _

***

Almost two years.  One year, 11 months, and 9 days, to be exact.  Undoubtedly the longest two years of Vaughn's life.  He spent all of the first year searching for her, for Sloane, for Derevko, for any sort of clue that would let them find her.  But after fourteen months of faulty intel and dead ends, Vaughn started to lose hope.  He knew that Kendall had given up long before that.  Vaughn knew Kendall only kept up the search to humor him and Jack, although Vaughn had a sneaking suspicion that Jack had given up, too.

***

            In an attempt to take his mind off of her, Vaughn switched on the radio.  Tuning to a local rock station, a vaguely familiar song floated out of the speakers.  The song was a few years old, new enough that Vaughn recognized the tune, but old enough that he could not remember the name of the song or the group.

            "Last time I talked to you, you were lonely and out of place," the singer crooned.  "You were looking down on me, lost out in space…"

            The song wasn't really helping very much.

***

            By the fifteenth month, Eric managed to drag Vaughn away from Ops Center for one night of normalcy.  At the bar, he and Weiss met up with Wiess' friend Nicole.  The three had a good time, and Vaughn had actually laughed and smiled for the first time in months.  Vaughn liked Nicole, and he could tell Nicole liked him, but he hadn't wanted to get over Sydney so soon, if at all.  It took a fair amount of convincing from Weiss before Vaughn asked Nicole for her phone number.  They started dating, first casually and slowly becoming more serious.  Nicole had dirty blonde hair with bright, gray-blue eyes.  She was much more outgoing than Vaughn, with a great sense of humor.  They both shared a love of hockey, but she preferred basketball while he preferred baseball.  She had lived in San Diego for almost her whole life and had moved to Los Angeles only a few months before meeting Vaughn.  Nicole worked at a bank, a _real_ bank, called BankOne of Southern California.  Vaughn found it extremely ironic that Nicole had moved to L.A. due to BankOne's sudden increase in popularity after Credit Dauphine went "bankrupt."

***

            "You're falling back to me, the star that I can't see.  I know you're out there, somewhere out there.  You're falling out of reach, defying gravity.  I know you're out there, somewhere out there," the song continued.  Vaughn sighed and focused on the road as the traffic lessened.

            _Why do I keep thinking about her?  If she was still alive, we would have heard something.  Besides, we started going out about a year and a half after Danny's death, and that was fine_, Vaughn reasoned to himself.

            _Yes, but with Danny, there was a body_, a more bitter, sardonic voice countered.  _You have no proof that she is alive, but you have no proof that she is dead, either._

***

            By the nineteenth month, Vaughn knew it was time to either propose to Nicole or break up with her.  He spent a whole week of sleepless nights deciding whether to take their relationship into its final step or to end it before it was too painful.  Half of him wanted to move on with his life; the other half wanted to go on pining for Sydney forever.  Hoping he had made the right decision, he bought an engagement ring and proposed to Nicole that evening.  She said yes.  Vaughn still wasn't sure if that was a good thing.

***

            Only three more miles to his exit.  Vaughn started to wonder if it would be better to just work at home.  It seemed to him that these long drives gave him too much time to think.  He didn't want to continually question all the decisions he had made in the past two years.

            "I miss your purple hair, I miss the way you taste.  I know you'll come back someday, on a bed of nails I wait.  I'm praying that you don't burn out, or fade away."

            Vaughn started and quickly switched off the radio.  He glared at the machine for a moment, angry at it for reading his thoughts.  It showed no remorse for its actions.

***

            By the twenty-second month, Vaughn and Nicole were married.  When people asked why they married so quickly, they just smiled and said they were crazy about each other.  In truth, Vaughn wanted to get married quickly before he changed his mind.  Nicole understood how he felt about Sydney.  She never pressed the issue, but she was always there when he felt like talking.

            They had moved to San Diego for two reasons.  One was so Nicole could be closer to her family, and the other reason was for Vaughn to get away from Los Angeles.  He had quit the CIA and gotten a job as an insurance agent.  A normal job, the kind of job where a person worked normal hours and went to normal places on business trips.  Vaughn even had time to teach hockey to younger kids at the local skating rink.

***

            Vaughn's cell phone rang as he pulled onto the exit ramp.  Recognizing the familiar number on the Caller ID, Vaughn's heart beat quickened with anticipation, but he quickly calmed himself.  _Don't get your hopes up_, he warned himself.  _It's probably just another dead end, or it might not even be about her._

            He picked up his phone and hit the "Talk" button.  "This is Vaughn."  Pause.  "What?!"

After a moment or two to let this information sink in, Vaughn realized where he was, along with the fact that he was about to run a red light.  "Yes.  Yes, sir, I'm okay.  All right, I'll be there as soon as possible.  Thank you for telling me so soon."

            With a shaking hand, Vaughn turned the phone off and turned back onto I-15.  After two years, she had come back.  She had reappeared.

            How could one simple thing be both a dream come true and a worst nightmare?

***

A/N:  So what do you think?  Was it wonderful?  Horrible?  The same as the last 20 post-The Telling fanfics you have read?  Are you crying and praying that I never pick up a pen again?  Please review and let me know.

~Kristin__


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